We understand that most of you are already aware what a Google Attribution Report looks like. But for those who do not, please keep reading this blog post.
Sample Attribution Report
What is an Attribution Report?
According to the Google Analytics support document, “The Attribution tab shows how many conversion events were driven by each source and ad network.”
Is that clear? If yes, congratulations! You have much better comprehension than me 🙂 However, if you still need more clarification, you happen to be in the right place, so please keep reading.
In my personal definition, Attribution reports will allow us to quantify each traffic source’s contribution to sales and conversions whether you’re using an MCF Channel Grouping, Default Channel Grouping, Source / Medium, Source, or Medium as a Primary Dimension. It is the process of assigning credit for sales and conversions to touch-points in a user’s conversion journey.
What Insights can you Learn from an Attribution Report?
Our world today has a lot of complexities. Marketers are having a hard time assessing the real value provided by the campaigns they’re running. One day, you might have clicked a Google AdWords ad to land on COMPANY A’s website. The next day, you could see a banner ad from COMPANY A while reading news online via Google Display Network. The ability to measure the true value of your Google AdWords’ campaign is something that we should be measuring. This is possible with Attribution Reports in Google Analytics.
Before diving into the Attribution Report, it’s important for you to know what kind of Attribution Modeling you should be using. Each model has its own purpose and it’s important for you to choose the right model for the type of analysis you’re planning to do.
Attribution Modeling Available in Google Analytics
Last Interaction Attribution model: the last touchpoint.
Last Non-Direct Click Attribution Model: all direct traffic is ignored, and 100% of the credit for the sale goes to the last channel that the customer clicked through from before converting.
Last AdWords Click Attribution Model: the last AdWords click.
First Interaction Attribution Model: the first touchpoint.
Linear Attribution Model: each touchpoint in the conversion path.
Time Decay Attribution Model: the touchpoints closest in time to the sale or conversion get most of the credit.
Position Based Attribution Model: 40% credit is assigned to each the first and last interaction, and the remaining 20% credit is distributed evenly to the middle interactions.
How is This Valuable to You?
By default, Google Analytics uses the Last non-direct click model when attributing conversion to a marketing channel. This kind of attribution is not helpful when you are analyzing campaigns that are designed to boost the upper funnel of a typical user’s conversion journey (For Example, Display or Video campaigns). In order to measure the effectivity of these campaigns, a Multi-Channel Attribution Report should be used.
This report will show you if Display or Video Campaigns, which is designed to boost the upper funnel, have an interaction that leads to conversion. Conversion in this report is considering all the touch point that happened within a conversion path. The attribution is giving credits to each touch point depending on the kind of attribution you selected.
Note: You have the option to choose what kind of attribution you want to use. You also have the ability to compare the conversions value based on different attribution.
I hope this blog post will help you to start using the Attribution Report in Google Analytics. Happy Analyzing!
Want to learn more about Google Analytics Attribution Reports? Contact your InfoTrust Consultant today!
